The main difference in the 8 vs the few previous GoPros is the mounting tabs being moved to the camera itself from the “cage”. This sounds like a small difference, but actually makes quite a difference in how small it feels and how easily it travels. It’s one less thing in your bag and it gives the camera a smaller footprint in a way that seems to defy the story the physical dimensions tell.
The new GoPro includes new views like linear mode when shooting in 4k. I like that a lot. I feel like the linear mode is best for most non-sports stuff because it greatly reduces lens distortion. The Hero 8 Black is fast and the video quality is pretty good. I still wish they would bump up the sensor size for better low light performance, but it is first and foremost an action camera, despite their recent pivot to appeal to the vlogging world.
GoPro’s ecosystem does work pretty damn well for vlogging (have I mentioned I hate that word? I really do.), especially with GoPro Plus. GoPro plus enables auto uploads to their cloud service when you plug it in and you’re near wifi. They are stored in full res and you can pull them down to edit or share, then delete them from local storage and just leave them there. It does a lot to solve my storage anxiety, and it works really well with an iPad Pro.
I’ll stop rambling now and let you just look at the footage, watch it on youtube and turn the quality up as high as it will go.